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Dino Attack RPG/Canon
Having been active for over seven years, the story of Dino Attack RPG is a long one, to put it lightly. This is a good part of the reason this Wiki was created, so players and readers could catch up to the current point in the RPG's story. However, those who take the time to read the entire topic may get confused by apparent contradictions in the original posts. And people familiar with official LEGO stories might get confused by facts and tales not officially made by the LEGO group. As well, those not so knowledgeable about LEGO stories can get unofficial info mixed up with the more obscure official info. To solve this problem, this page serves to inform RPG players and readers what is or is not canon in the RPG's story, and what is official LEGO info or unofficial fan stories and theories. Sources of Canon For Dino Attack RPG, there are three major sources of canon: the RPG itself, this wiki, and the Expanded Universe. The RPG Obviously, Dino Attack RPG itself is the primary source of its canon. This is where most of its story and characters originate. However, it should be noted that the canon established in Dino Attack RPG is not set in stone. As discussed in the "Older Posts of the RPG" section below, previously-established canon may be subject to change as the result of discrepancies with newer canon. This can happen in the RPG itself, since a post on BZPower can be edited at any time by the person who wrote it, or in an outside source, such as the wiki and Expanded Universe. The downloadable archives of Dino Attack RPG and Dino Attack: At War's End are annotated with editor's notes to explain what material might no longer be considered canon and why. Fortunately, by the time of At War's End, the current canon had been fully established. With the exception of a few odd posts that were either edited or ignored, it is considered nearly entirely canon. Dino Attack RPG Wiki The Dino Attack RPG Wiki was created in 2008, nearly three years into the lifespan of the RPG, in order to better organize its already-extensive canon to help newcomers catch up on old material. In addition to documenting the original RPG's canon, the wiki itself became a source of new canon. This gave players an excellent resource to write about canon that is not directly stated in the RPG itself. For example, the article on Cyber-Bully revealed his name for the first time. Additionally, the wiki sorts out current canon from older non-canon material. Many of the changes to older canon were established on this wiki when contributors found themselves having to write an article about something that no longer matched up with newer canon. As a result, the wiki is the best source of reference for the current canon of the RPG. Its only major drawback is its incomplete coverage of the RPG's extensive content, which is still a project that is being worked on to this day. Expanded Universe Especially after At War's End was finished, the story of Dino Attack RPG has continued through its Expanded Universe. This primarily consists of short stories written by the RPG's former players. Stories such as First Assignment, The Madness of Agent Zero, and Ghosts tell new stories about the RPG's characters, often serving either as preludes to or continuations of the writer's existing work. The Huntsman and Time and Place were written to flesh out the motivations of Ata and Anubis, respectively, who did not have much time to develop their characterizations in the RPG itself. Because most of these stories were written after the end of At War's End, they are considered the most recent works of canon. In any instance where discrepancies arise between the RPG and the short story, usually the later canon of the short story takes precedence. This is taken to its logical extreme in Love and War, which is a direct rewrite of events that happened in the RPG and is intended to be the definitive canon depiction of these events. DINO ATTACK: Saga of a Conflict was initially planned to be a full graphic novel adaptation of Dino Attack RPG. There might have been alterations to the story to better fit the canon of the Mustache Maniacs Film Co. Cinematic Universe, but these changes would not have been considered canon to Dino Attack RPG. Depictions of characters and objects without previously-established canon appearances, such as the Ogel Drilling Vehicle, are considered canon. Tribute works such as Dino Attack: Legacy and Dino Attack in a Nutshell are inspired by RPG canon but are not considered canon. Older Posts of the RPG As this Wiki becomes more and more informative, the need for members to search the inordinate number of pages the RPG itself has become less and less necessary for staying on top of things. But for the brave souls who dare to spend hours reading the old posts, they often stumble upon posts that seem to contradict everything they've been told about the current RPG. What those readers should know is that a little known concept known as "retconning" (derived from the phrase "retroactive continuity") is used to render these old posts non-canon to the current RPG story for various reasons. The BIONICLE Universe At the time, it wasn't very surprising that the BIONICLE characters and places ended up as a frequent occurrence in the RPG during the first couple of years, seeing as it was hosted on one of the biggest BIONICLE fansites on the web. However, as the mysteries of the BIONICLE Universe were cleared up, it became harder and harder to keep the familiar islands of Mata Nui and Metru Nui on the LEGO Planet. Sooner or later, this had to be addressed. There were other issues too. As PeabodySam spent more time on BZPower, he realized the importance of keeping an RPG on the rails of the core story (Minifigs fighting the Mutant Dinos), and the temptations of BIONICLE (and to a lesser extent, other popular LEGO Themes like Exo-Force) were beginning to derail the topic and putting its future in danger. This issue came to a peak when Metty the Black Wizard featured a whole cavalry of BIONICLE characters in Exo-Force battle machines fighting the Mutant Dinos. This incident, frequently referred to now as "The time the Dino Attack RPG almost became the BIONICLE Meets Exo-Force RPG", was the last straw for PeabodySam, who shortly afterwards banned further inclusion of the BIONICLE World by moving it to another planet (which is where it was eventually revealed to be in BIONICLE story) and confirming that Mutant Dinos had destroyed all methods of space travel out of the LEGO Planet, preventing any logical travel there. Similar treatment was given to Exo-Force (which was dangerously popular at the time) for good measure; similarly to BIONICLE's Aqua Magna, it was later confirmed by Exo-Force's writer that Sentai Mountain was located on another planet. This did mean that all events involving BIONICLE had to be retconned. For example, at one point, Dino Attack agents Rex and Zero had managed to get a hold of several unique Kanoka Disks which had the capabilities of turning Minifigs into physical copies of the Toa Metru. This happened to Zero and Phantom who was present with them, but it was eventually undone. This event was modified to say that Zero and Phantom were actually using experimental power suits at the time. Foresight Editing Occasionally, some of the senior players of the RPG find that their old posts are somewhat unlikable. Perhaps they reflect an earlier, noobish nature of the player. Perhaps the actions described in the post are too unreasonable or skimming the edges of g-modding. Or perhaps the player has found that an idea he had wasn't so good after all, or is contradicted by a later, better idea. Whatever the reason, this results in the player editing the post reflect the current nature of the RPG. They may not change the post itself (due to some of them being made by inactive players), but when that happens, the change will be shown as a retcon on this Wiki A good example of this is how PeabodySam frequently goes back to change his old posts to reflect his current ideas for the story of the RPG. His changes range from removing Johnny Thunder from a post where Greybeard stops the riots in Antarctica due to conflicting story material in LEGO Universe, to crossing out a good chunk of a post where the Silver Scorpion is handed over to the populace of Sentai Mountain shortly prior to the events of Exo-Force. Legends Most changes to old canon are relatively minor, such as deciding that Specs, not Shadow, is the one who discharged Rex or that clarifying Hotwire's age is actually 24, not 20. However, the stories of several characters received extensive overhauls when they no longer made sense in the RPG. For example, Rev Raptor and Sereve's story arc was significantly altered as the result of later canon. This is also especially true of stories that involved aforementioned BIONICLE content, such as Zero transforming into a Toa or Slash teaming up with the Rahaga. In these instances, the original canon may be considered to be a "Legends" continuity; this moniker is a reference to the old Star Wars official Expanded Universe, which was decanonized after Disney acquired the franchise. On this wiki, articles are written to reflect current canon. Where it is deemed necessary, an article may have an additional sub-article for the original Legends continuity, written to preserve the original canon before it was retconned. For example, Zero/Legends is an alternate version of Zero's article that keeps his original story intact, with references to Zero becoming a Toa instead of wearing T.O.A. armor. The Madness of Agent Zero, while written as part of the current canon, was heavily inspired by the Legends continuity. While Zero's experiences are treated in-universe as merely hallucinations, they are actually Zero's story in the Legends continuity. The idea behind this short story is that Zero is existing in a transition state of the RPG as the Legends canon is being retconned and replaced with the modern canon; Zero experiences this as his memories changing and seeing words being deleted and rewritten. Official LEGO Story Info The officially given information regarding the world of the LEGO themes have not been forgotten by the RPG players, and they are faithfully follow, even as they find ways to sneak in a playful jab when bringing up less-liked information. In fact, official LEGO story is scattered far and wide from obscure books, magazines, games, and websites, which can result in situation where someone needs clarification to tell LEGO Canon from RPG Canon. Timeline of Events Dino Attack RPG's unofficial rule about the canonicity of official LEGO stories is that they are all true, and that the events portrayed in said stories usually occur around the same year the story is released, but exceptions are given for lines officially stated or implied to occur in a different period. For example, the LEGO Dino Attack line was released in 2005, but was stated in LEGO Magazine to occur five years later. Because of this, the RPG was able to integrate lines released long after the original Dino Attack line, allowing references or appearances of later LEGO products like Agents, Power Miners, and LEGO Universe. It also meant that the storyline allowed for the LEGO Space lines, which have not been given specific timesets, had already been occurring, which allowed the Dino Aliens and the Dino Attack Agent Laxus to appear without much confusion in-story. However, this can cause confusion when the particular story cited is rather obscure (such as old LEGO Software titles and comics/articles found in LEGO Magazine and its many incarnations), but by having the story cited when asked, the chances of this happening are low. Facts and Figures While quite a bit of the technical info has been made up by the RPG players, there is also plenty of info officially created by LEGO to help explain things about the LEGO Universe. For example, the information released about the LEGO Universe Massively Multiplayer Online Game through press releases and the Bradford Rant/Great Minifig Mission ARG has been accepted as helpful revelations about the biology of Minifig and the origins of the LEGO Planet. However, because not everyone likes the information for whatever reason (much like their real-world counterparts), the information is not 100% confirmed in the universe of the RPG, instead regarded as scientific theories that cannot be definitively proven. Characters Of course, among the many made-up characters invented by the RPG players to tell the story of the Dino Attack are several official characters. The four original Dino Attack agents (known better as Team Founders Specs, Digger, Shadow and Viper) are the most prominent/mentioned, but other characters from Alpha Team and Agents are frequently brought up as well, along with characters related to the environment where fan characters may be at (e.g. Johnny Thunder and Achu in relation to Adventurers' Island). Limits are in place when an official character is brought up. They are not allowed to be killed, but they are allowed to be put in original situations (for example, having Pepper Roni stranded on LEGO Island and needing to be rescued). And again, certain characters and their appearances may also be obscure depending on the medium (such as LEGO Island's Captain Click), so citation is advised to be given when asked. Unofficial LEGO Story Info Unofficial information is ever-present in the Dino Attack RPG, being used everywhere from tying together the Life on Mars and Mars Mission themes, to a complicated explanation as to what brought about the Mutant Dinos. As such, these examples of Fanon and other works need to be pointed out. Fan Theories In many places in official LEGO story, there are many unanswered questions, unexplained phenomenon, and unaddressed potential circumstances that can leave certain people scratching their heads. Things like "Did the Dino Attack Team handle a whole globe conquered by Mutant Dinos?", "How did Adventurers' Island come about?", and "Where do the bricks of LEGO Island go when the page for their structure is torn out of the Constructopedia?" Each one of these questions have been given an answer by the RPG players, and are able to be found somewhere on both this wiki and the RPG itself. It should be noted that these explanations are not accepted by all LEGO story fans, but for many of the frequenters of BZPower's LEGO General Discussion topic, they are accepted as believed theories. LEGO RPGs Dino Attack RPG is not the only famous LEGO RPG in its forum on BZPower. There have been others of similarly excellent quality that exist in the same universe as the RPG, and thus, there are references. Most notably, the RPGs created for the Alpha Team line (Mission Deep Freeze and Ogel's Last Stand) share many characters, places, and things, a primary reason for this being the RPG's creator [[User:PeabodySam|'PeabodySam's']] involvement with both of the previous RPGs. Other RPGs, like several Pirates RPGs, Adventurers RPGs, and a Space Police RPG (though all Space RPGs thus far have been set in the future, long after the events of Dino Attack RPG), also share universes. However, it should also be noted that this shared RPG universe differs from RPG to RPG. For example, TakunuvaC01's Johnny Thunder RPG is slated to take place in the early 20th century, which contradicts the LEGO Adventurers theme's placement in the Dino Attack RPG timeline. As a result, Roy Bishop and Nick Lightning are characters who appeared in the two versions of Johnny Thunder RPG, but in Dino Attack RPG canon they lived in separate times; Lightning's adventures are slated to take place in 2008, while Bishop's adventures match the original RPG's placement in the early 20th century. It should also be noted that Johnny Thunder RPG Mk. II, the version in which Bishop appears, does not consider the previous Johnny Thunder RPG, in which Lightning appears, to be canon. This can get rather confusing, so an important principle to keep in mind is that each RPG's interpretation of other RPG canon can be broad and loose to accommodate differences in canon. The "broad strokes" interpretation also holds true for any Expanded Universe that RPGs (specifically, Alpha Team: Mission Deep Freeze RPG) may have. For example, The Banned is only considered canon insofar as Alpha Team agents (such as Subzero, Frozeen, and Kotua) dealing with a cyber hacker named XTREMEPOWERMOD during the events of Mission Deep Freeze; the actual details of the story (such as the virtual world of BZKoro and the numerous BIONICLE creatures that Subzero fights) are not considered canon. Since it was never finished or archived, Rahkshi VS Vahki is largely disregarded by Dino Attack RPG canon. Since Alpha Team: Mission Deep Freeze RPG and its Expanded Universe would have been considered completely canon prior to the removal of BIONICLE content from Dino Attack RPG, it can therefore be considered fully canon in the original Dino Attack RPG Legends continuity. Other Fan Works RPG player Tacku is known for creating an unfinished fan-made entry to the LEGO Island game franchise known as LEGO Island 3. The game, crediting itself as "BZPower's first 3D RPG," received critical acclaim by many other BZPower members, some of them accepting it as a true sequel to the official games. Therefore, it was of not much surprise that it was largely accepted into the RPG's universe as well. LMS, a series of Rock Raiders-inspired fanfics by Primis, PeabodySam, and Mobius, has been incorporated into the Dino Attack RPG canon, since Sam Throramebi and David Miner both originate from The Rock Raiders Meet BIONICLE (which later received an incomplete rewrite titled Two Worlds). However, Two Worlds is only considered loosely canon and is again subject to the "broad strokes" interpretation seen with other RPGs, largely because it is a comedy and it heavily features BIONICLE content. Other stories in the LMS saga, including Run! and Legacy, are likewise only regarded as semi-canon. As part of the Project U collaboration, Mustache Maniacs Film Co. has incorporated characters from Dino Attack RPG (such as Wallace Bishop and Robert Nicholas) into its own canon, which is regarded as a separate universe designated as Dimension 418. According to its Official Cinematic Universe, the original Dino Attack RPG story takes place in Dimension 525 alongside other Mustache Maniacs works such as The Drama Zone: Nightmare at Shady Acres and Com 50: Peril in Iran. However, Dino Attack RPG does not currently regard other Dimension 525 works as canon; that being said, they are not strictly considered non-canon either, as long as they do not contradict the RPG's canon. Non-LEGO Information The Dino Attack RPG/References page demonstrates how the RPG players have managed to tie in songs, movies, TV shows, and video games. Tying into an infrequent practice by the LEGO Group, they even occasionally go through "LEGOization," with consists of adding something LEGO into the title of the work in question (for example, referring to the film Revenge of the Sith as Revenge of the Brick or referring to Nintendo as Ninlego). In any case, references to these works of real life as their state of being in real life are generally allowed, but occasionally, some players may be tempted to put certain pieces of fiction into the same world of the RPG, which is not allowed. Aspects similar to the aspects of other works of fiction, such as the cast of the video game Team Fortress 2 "appearing" as the Second Headquarters Squad, and Toa Antrakha's characters using weapons based on the ones seen in Halo, generally are okay, but anything beyond that is frowned upon. For example, in an instance where the "real" Escape from New York Snake Plissken and Metal Gear Solid Snake showed up in the RPG to beat up Snake and Plastic Serpent (who were inspired by these aforementioned characters), Atton Rand later had to clarify that this scene was non-canon in response to his fellow writers pointing out this policy. Category:Dino Attack RPG